Bill O'Reilly is rarely less than forthright in his views. The Fox news pundit claimed on his show this week that 'a lot of the Bible is allegorical,' adding that the New Testament Gospels contradict themselves.
According to WND, O’Reilly made his comments during his interview with ‘Touched by an Angel’ star Roma Downey, the Derry-born Irish actress, and her husband Mark Burnett, the executive producers of The Bible miniseries which begins on the History Channel on Sunday.
Downey, who portrays Jesus' mother Mary in the series, made it clear she had complete faith in Holy Scripture.
'Bringing the Bible to the screen came with a huge responsibility and one we took very seriously,' Downey said. 'We had a great team of scholars and theologians helping us, making sure that we told these stories accurately and truthfully. I’ve been a believer my whole life, and that was very, very important to us.
‘Something else that we wanted to do was to make it really, really cool. You know, we have teenagers at home and it's hard to get them to read anything, and one of the goals here was to get this generation interested and excited about Scripture, and I think we’ve been able to achieve that.’
O’Reilly took a surprising line then, asking Downey: 'When you say you’re a believer, do you believe in the Bible literally? I mean you believe that Adam and Eve were out there, and the snake and the apple and all of that business?'
Downey didn't blink: 'I do indeed. I believe the truth of the Bible. That’s what I was taught, and it’s been a wonderful, wonderful faith for me my whole life. I grew up in Ireland. Earliest memories, my father reading the Bible to me sitting on his knee. And this was something that I had wanted to do and it’s wonderful to be able to work together with my husband on the TV series. The good news is we’re still speaking to each other.'
O’Reilly, whose latest book, “Killing Jesus,” examines the multiple and often contradictory biblical accounts of his life, then asked Burnett (producer of shows such as The Voice, Survivor and The Apprentice) for his views.
'Look, a lot of the Bible is allegorical, and we know that in creationism and things like that,' O’Reilly claimed. 'So what you’re doing here, I assume, is just telling the story the way that the prophets put forth, without any commentary in it. Is that correct?'
'That’s exactly correct,' Burnett replied. 'Right down the middle, telling the Bible as written. As fact. Five hours Old Testament, five hours New Testament.'
O’Reilly followed up by asking, 'Are you telling people that they should believe in Adam and Eve? That they should believe in Noah’s Ark? Jonah and the whale? Are you telling people that this is the way to go?'
'People will believe what they want to believe,' said Burnett. 'The worst thing would be to try to preach to people and tell them how to feel about these stories. People will love these stories.'
Downey added: 'We worked from the position that the Bible was a true story. We haven’t taken a position on that except to bring the stories to life meaningfully. We have filmed the passion of Jesus, we’ve taken it right through resurrection, the conversion of Paul and through to Revelation, and that episode will be on Easter Sunday evening.'
O’Reilly didn't explicitly outline which contradictions he alleges exist in the New Testament, but he did predict some critics would attack 'The Bible' miniseries for its apparent literalism.
Meanwhile O'Reilly and fellow Fox News pundit Sean Hannity both saw enormous drops in the all important age 25 to 54 audience demographic from the same point in 2012. Hannity's audience fell by a whopping 35 percent from 2012, and O'Reilly's reportedly fell 26 percent. In 2012 there was a major focus on the election issues.
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Switch to the desktop site to post a comment.bunkerhill | Mar 08, 2013, 01:51 PM EST
I, as Mrs. Bunker Hill, spent all my school years in Catholic schools which were indeed wonderful. However, we were never encouraged to read the bible as we were told it needed "learned" interpretation. I tend to agree totally with that. We do believe there is the most powerful force for love in the universe and wonder at Jesus Christ's pronouncement that "The meek shall inherit the earth." Is it happening at present? We question how Adam and Eve having two sons went on to propagate the "human" race. Can anyone name their wives? Being history lovers we can see no evidence of the Jews being slaves in Egypt. Where do the stories of angels and demons emanate from, the struggle between good and evil which is the story of the human race? We believe totally in God but question whether the Garden of Eden was in actuality not on the planet earth, but somewhere else. One more question that bothers us and we would welcome any input. Was Jesus Christ actually a Jew as so many people believe he was not? Also why is he so often portrayed with red hair? Were there that many red heads in the mid-east and Italy where many paintings were done. Red hair was so rare worldwide so what were the reasons for the red haired portrayals? We do however totally believe in a loving God but question people who think they have all the answers. A loving God would not choose one group to the exclusion of others but would love everyone equally. That is the God we believe in and we have experienced his love.
seanomelb | Mar 04, 2013, 05:38 PM EST
Never end a sentence with "as well"
anglo-norman | Mar 03, 2013, 12:57 AM EST
seanomelb-You are like something out of the bible as well..
seanomelb | Mar 02, 2013, 07:29 PM EST
The GOPer's are ridiculing O'Reilly I almost feel I should come to his aid.On second thoughts it's a bridge to far.
anglo-norman | Mar 02, 2013, 05:17 PM EST
If Roma Downey believes in Adam & Eve then she deserves all the ridicule she gets...
Scrivner | Mar 02, 2013, 02:22 PM EST
Interesting. So, in the Catholic viewpoint, the Bible is alligorical but transubstantiation and papal infallibility are literally true?
awoken32 | Mar 02, 2013, 01:58 PM EST
Bill O Reilly is nothing but a pure sell-out,He works for the globalists agenda,He represents the corrupted system over the people,He is in the same league as Piers Morgans,Two money hungry dirt bags
pilib04 | Mar 02, 2013, 11:05 AM EST
What do you expect from William F. Buckley Jr. nephew. Was surprised that O'Reilly opposed the death penalty and supported gun control. Must be his Catholic upbringing. There are even rumours that he supports environmental protection.
Maureen Hawkins | Mar 02, 2013, 02:49 AM EST
It has never been Church doctrine that the Bible is literally true & inerrant (which is not the same thing as being divinely inspired--that the Church as always taught). In fact, no one thought that the Bible is literally true & inerrant until the late-19th century, when some American fundamentalist sects started teaching it.
anndrewbright | Mar 02, 2013, 01:49 AM EST
Fox and O'Reilly are at it again. I wonder what the right wing republicans are going to think of him now. He says he is a catholic...as far as I know...catholics believe in the truth of the Bible. I guess I should never be surprised by the things he will do to get attention. His next book will be about finding a personal relationship with God, asking for forgiveness for his comments and being born again!!! He should quit the news business and start his own reality tv program. He and Honey BooBoo would make a great pair. They have about the same IQ..should work out just fine!
seanomelb | Mar 01, 2013, 06:37 PM EST
Paul established the Church not Jesus.
PiperMac52 | Mar 01, 2013, 06:08 PM EST
I do think you are reading too much into this. O'Reilly simply stated what the Catholic church has always taught. The Bible is a complex book with many parts and meanings. It contains parables, metaphors, allegories, an eyewitness view of old testament Jewish law and tradition, and of coarse the Gospels which depict Christ's life, death and resurrection. It also contains Christ's/God's law and teachings(which many liberals want to reinterpret to fit their moral relativism). Only the protestant denominations, especially the Baptist take the entire text literally. That is why sola scriptura does not work. Christ established one church to keep his truths and empowered her to discern through the magesterium.
seanomelb | Mar 01, 2013, 05:58 PM EST
My bibles sit on my bookshelf between greek mythology and the Egyptian book of the dead
MichaelS | Mar 01, 2013, 05:41 PM EST
So Bill is a Theologian and Bible scholar now? How does he know what is allegorical and what is truth? If I, as a practicing Christian, want to believe all written in the Bible is true that is my faith, my belief and my decision. Bill stick to telling the truthful news and please stop trying to be what you are not. Thank you
paco | Mar 01, 2013, 01:28 PM EST
As one who many years in Catholic schools including a Catholic college I never interpreted the Bible in a literal manner regarding it more allegorical. Bill O'Reilly freguently plays devils advocate when interviewing, those of us who watch regularily know that. Can anyone cite an example of him lying?
jamieLM | Mar 01, 2013, 11:37 AM EST
The Bible is the story of faith, not science. You either choose to believe in the existence of God/Jesus and the promise of eternal life, or not. The Bible doesn't "prove" anything. I often watch these types of Bible miniseries. They don't shake my faith because I don't believe in a literal interpretation of the Bible and I can separate scientific facts from religious faith. Btw: there is no mention of an "apple" in Genesis. It says "'fruit' of the trees." Look it up. Does it matter? Not really. (:))
slainte9 | Mar 01, 2013, 10:03 AM EST
It should be long and well-known that Catholics don't believe in a literal interpretation of the Bible. What got Galileo into trouble was mixing science and religion without having solid science to back him up (and Galileo and the pope he insulted being a couple of really grumpy old friends). What Catholic bashers won't acknowledge is that Galileo's science wasn't adequate, and Catholic astronomers and the pope knew this: we're not messing with the Bible until you have scientific proof, not just a theory. A generation or two later Newton provided a rock solid theoretical basis for heliocentrism. Many decades later James Blake, an Englishman, discovered the scientific proof of heliocentrism when discovered the aberration of light. At that point, the RC said, ok fine, haven't we been telling everyone the Bible's allegorical all along.
Joe Kelsall | Mar 01, 2013, 09:58 AM EST
O'Reilly is a suitable case for chronic bashing for a myriad of reasons. He is a bully, a hypocrite and an unmitigated liar.
CavanAncestor | Mar 01, 2013, 09:37 AM EST
As the police officer said at the accident scene said, "move along. Nothing to see here." Nothing in O'Reilly's comments that I hadn't learning from the scholarly jesuit theologians that taught me in college. I guess O'Reilly should thank you for the publicity. While I'm not always his fan, Irish-Central has a hang up in chronically badshing him, most often for no vsalid reason.
CitizenWhy | Mar 01, 2013, 08:38 AM EST
He was just giving a Catholic viewpoint on the Bible. A literal belief in the Bible is relatively recent. Ironically it is the literalists who came up with the Rapture invention in the 1800s.